Resident Evil: Code Veronica X HDReview

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Sometimes you shouldn't go back.

By Richard George

Ten years seems like a lifetime in the video game industry – particularly for the Resident Evil franchise. Over the past decade the series has seen four major releases, and has altered its formula considerably in that time, maturing what was clearly an archaic and dated design into something that propelled Capcom's ambitions into another league. Resident Evil: Code Veronica was released prior to the series' evolution. In other words, revisiting it might not be the best idea.

Code Veronica was impressive ten years ago because of its graphics and atmosphere. Aging controls, camera angles and gameplay sensibilities were tolerable because at that point the Resident Evil franchise was only five years old. Reliving them now proves particularly shocking. While the game manages to retain some of its trademark tension and cheap scare tactics, the exceptional Dreamcast era graphics are almost laughable now.

Exit Theatre Mode

Stiff character animation, mitten-like hands and rudimentary textures just begin to demonstrate how relatively simple standards were ten years ago. Capcom has done nothing to enhance the game other than upscaling it to HD, similar to the lackluster fidelity retreatment Resident Evil 4 HD received. Expect a slightly crisper and more vivid presentation of the same graphics. Technically Capcom is faithfully recreating a beloved title, but it still hasn't aged well. Some minimal amount of effort would have gone a long way. Look at Nintendo or Team Ico's efforts for proof.

Code Veronica's problems don't end with poorly-aged visuals. Count the game's stilted, tank-like controls as the chief offender, as some simple alterations could have gone a long way. Instead poor Claire Redfield must rotate left and right (without moving her legs) before moving forward and backward. It certainly doesn't help that analog sticks have improved since the Dreamcast days. More sensitive, nuanced input means that movement is almost always exaggerated. As a result, my Claire typically ran through levels like a frantic, drunken hobo. Achieving that level of coordination was virtually a miracle in and of itself.

For its time, Code Veronica's camera was somewhat of a step up for the RE franchise. No longer were settings pre-rendered, allowing Capcom to actually program the camera to pivot around scenery in key sequences. Still, don't mistake this for anything dynamic that might follow you or allow you to get a decent perspective on your environment. The developers rely on sensory deprivation for cheap scares. Sadly this also has the effect of depriving you of a reasonable game experience, meaning you're often running around tapping the "Interact" button in the hopes that you find things you can't see and operate devices you didn't even know you could use. By the way, you also need that wonderful "Interact" button to walk up stairs, and opening doors brings back the infamous "opening door animation." Once a clever way of masking loading times these dull sequences are now mostly annoying relics of the past.

Not shown: Awkward, stilted controls.

Though frustrating to some gamers because they lacked a few of the survival horror elements of their predecessors, Resident Evils 4 and 5 proved the cinematic potential of the franchise, bringing a scale and attention to detail that rivaled Hollywood productions. Once again, Code Veronica fails to even remotely reach that standard, featuring awkward dialogue and voice-overs as well as bizarre character logic and terribly dated pre-rendered cutscenes.

The Verdict

Resident Evil: Code Veronica certainly stood as a high mark for its franchise &#Array; at the time. Revisiting the game, with its dated graphics and in light of the significant improvements made by its successors, proves an entirely different experience. In many ways, the only reason to play through Code Veronica is to truly appreciate what RE 4 and RE 5 managed to do. Unfortunately not all titles age equally.